A typical double bearing reel includes left and right side plates including a frame and left and right cover plates (left and right cover members) removably attached to left and right sides of the frame, respectively. Between the left and right side plates, there is rotatably supported a spool for winding a fishing line. Upon a winding operation of a handle disposed on one of the side plates, the spool is driven to rotate to wind the fishing line. Between the frame and the cover plates, there are housed various functional components such as a drive force transmission mechanism for transmitting a rotational force of the handle to the spool and a brake force adjusting mechanism for adjusting a brake force imparted on the rotation of the spool. Since these functional components require maintenance or the like including mounting/removal of the spool (such as when replacing the spool or solving a trouble that a fishing line is pinched), an opening/closing mechanism is provided on the frame and the cover plates so as to enable the cover plates to be removed, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005-323586 (hereinafter “the '586 Publication”) and 2011-24527 (hereinafter “the '527 Publication”).
The opening/closing mechanism is configured such that the cover plates can be released from the frame by operating an operation member such as a screw or a lever disposed on the cover plates. For example, the aforementioned '586 Publication discloses that a lever-type operation member is disposed on a lower rear portion of the side plate on an inner side of the frame on an opposite side to the handle, and the '527 Publication discloses that a dial screw-type operation member is disposed on a lower front portion of the cover plate on an opposite side to the handle.
The operation member of the opening/closing mechanism disclosed in each of the aforementioned '586 Publication and '527 Publication is turned between a release position and a closing position so as to switch between a releasable state where the frame is releasable by the cover plates (the cover plates can be removed from the frame) and a closed locked state where the frame is closed by the cover plates (removal of the cover plates from the frame is disabled). In the above-described '586 Publication, whether at the release position or at the closing position, the lever-type operation member remains to be positioned so as to be exposed on the lower rear portion on the inner side of the frame. Because of this, it can hardly be determined by appearance whether the operation member is at the release position or the closing position, and the operation member is brought close to a fishing line winding surface of the spool, so that it is likely that the fishing line becomes tangled around the operation member.
Similarly, also in the aforementioned '527 Publication, whether at the release position or at the closing position, the dial screw-type operation member remains to be projected to an outer peripheral region of the side plate on the lower front portion of the cover plate. Because of this, it can hardly be determined by appearance whether the operation member is at the release position or the closing position, and thus there may occur a trouble that a casting operation is erroneously performed when the operation member is at the release position, causing the cover plate to fall off from the frame.
Furthermore, in a fishing method using a double bearing reel, various operations are performed. For example, the side plate on the opposite side to the handle is gripped for a winding operation of the handle, or the side plate on a handle side or the opposite side to the handle is gripped for casting a tackle. When the side plate is gripped with a palm, the palm might hit a projection, resulting in occurrence of uncomfortable grip feeling. In order to prevent this, the operation member of the opening/closing mechanism is required not to be projected from a side surface of the cover plate. Actual fishing, however, involves various operation modes performed by gripping a reel body, and therefore, in some cases, various parts of fingers might accidentally contact the operation member. That is, when the reel body is gripped, a portion from the lower front portion to a rear side of the outer peripheral region of the side plate is contacted by various parts such as a tip, belly, or root of a finger. Therefore, in a case where the operation member of the opening/closing mechanism is disposed on this portion, there is a possibility that a sense of discomfort and uncomfortable grip feeling occur, a pain is felt, or a malfunction occurs in a gripping part of a palm or fingers.